September 5, 2012

Hollow Man

It's even more poignant now than it was when it happened that Clint Eastwood riffed on the empty chair president, given that the DNC has cancelled the arena rock presidential acceptance speech that was to happen at Charlotte's 74,000 seat Bank of America stadium because there's a 20% chance of rain. Instead they will go with a smaller venue.

Empty chair president, meet empty stadium throng of worshippers.

The irony is delicious. Keep in mind the RNC went on with their convention in the face of Hurricane Isaac. Not because they were insensitive - they in fact shortened from 4 days to 3 - but because they weren't led by "suspend your campaign" McCain. The were sensitive about potential damage and injury that might result from the hurricane, but they knew that suspending the convention was a bad idea.

What did the Democrats learn from that? Nothing. Apparently scaling back is still okay. In any case they really couldn't apply that lesson here, since they weren't really suspending anything but rather scaling back.

Bonus Irony: The Democrats had already shortened their campaign from 4 days to 3 due to money problems, which of course they blamed on uh, er, logistics.

Bonus Irony 2: The location of the acceptance speech (Time Warner Cable Arena) is where the NHL's Carolina Hurricanes play.

The common elements of all of this? Empty suit, empty stadium, empty rhetoric and wind. You do the math.